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Its one of those 'I cant quite afford this right now but drawing odds are low and I want my name in the hat every chance I get and if i get drawn Im going to make it happen one way or another but if I drew in 2 or 3 years it would be better'. Atleast thats how I look at some hunts like this.

Exactly. And I would make it happen. Still rough as my child support ended less than a year ago. Not easy when your ex refused to work for 20 years and never paid one family bill during that time. Government loves to throw dedicated hard working citizen's money at unemployed trailer trash because their Johnson administration welfare programs are unsustainable. The 200# lamprey eel scar will take some time to heal, if ever. In fact, the way I see it, the least the gov't could do is entitle me to a free bison tag for payback.

If you are a nonresident of WY I really don't think your odds will increase in the bison draw this year, although I could be wrong. Here is my thinking: along with the increased cost, massively increased by the way it will help your odds on the surface, its just a function of the cost. When it goes up to over $2,500 up front it is definitely going to weed out a lot of people. That is the most expensive tag in WY. But, and here is where it goes the other way, and I did call and check on this with my contacts in Cheyenne, there along with the upfront cost increase, they state now only sets aside 20% of the bison tags for nonresident hunters. In the old system, everyone that applied had a equal chance at that tag res and NR alike. So, I think the residents will have the most to gain from this scenario, our upfront costs went up significantly also, over $400 I believe it is, but now we get 80% of the available tags. I'm hoping all in all, when it is all said and done, the odds for everyone goes up, but I'm not sure about the NR hunters because of the set aside change. I do know this, with that pricing change there certainly won't be almost 4,000 applicants for those tags any more. -G

If you are a nonresident of WY I really don't think your odds will increase in the bison draw this year, although I could be wrong. Here is my thinking: along with the increased cost, massively increased by the way it will help your odds on the surface, its just a function of the cost. When it goes up to over $2,500 up front it is definitely going to weed out a lot of people. That is the most expensive tag in WY. But, and here is where it goes the other way, and I did call and check on this with my contacts in Cheyenne, there along with the upfront cost increase, they state now only sets aside 20% of the bison tags for nonresident hunters. In the old system, everyone that applied had a equal chance at that tag res and NR alike. So, I think the residents will have the most to gain from this scenario, our upfront costs went up significantly also, over $400 I believe it is, but now we get 80% of the available tags. I'm hoping all in all, when it is all said and done, the odds for everyone goes up, but I'm not sure about the NR hunters because of the set aside change. I do know this, with that pricing change there certainly won't be almost 4,000 applicants for those tags any more. -G

It is my understanding in years past the ranking system for residents and non-residents has been kept separate. In 2012 there were 856 non-residents on the non-resident priority list. In 2013 there were 1056 applicants on the non-resident priority list. It is my understanding in those years that the resident priority list had a few thousand people on it.

Another issue, is the proportion of tags non-resident to resident hunters:

In 2012: 81 resident bull bison hunters and 15 non-residents. 15.6% of the hunters were nonresidents.

In 2011: 84 resident bull bison hunters and 18 non-residents. 17.6% of the hunters were nonresidents.

In 2010: 59 resident bull bison hunters and 12 non-residents. 16.9% of the hunters were nonresidents.

If in fact non-residents are issued 20% of the bison tags in 2014, that will be a minor improvement for non-resident applicants. Also factor in that the non-resident applications are likely to be far lower since the full tag fee must be sent in upfront.

If you are a nonresident of WY I really don't think your odds will increase in the bison draw this year, although I could be wrong. Here is my thinking: along with the increased cost, massively increased by the way it will help your odds on the surface, its just a function of the cost. When it goes up to over $2,500 up front it is definitely going to weed out a lot of people. That is the most expensive tag in WY. But, and here is where it goes the other way, and I did call and check on this with my contacts in Cheyenne, there along with the upfront cost increase, they state now only sets aside 20% of the bison tags for nonresident hunters. In the old system, everyone that applied had a equal chance at that tag res and NR alike. So, I think the residents will have the most to gain from this scenario, our upfront costs went up significantly also, over $400 I believe it is, but now we get 80% of the available tags. I'm hoping all in all, when it is all said and done, the odds for everyone goes up, but I'm not sure about the NR hunters because of the set aside change. I do know this, with that pricing change there certainly won't be almost 4,000 applicants for those tags any more. -G

It is also my understanding the lists are separate. I see only good things coming from this for non resident draw odds if you can front the cost of the tag.

My thinking is that this year will be a big drop off of NR... perhaps making it the best NR odds ever...

I was going to apply, but don't think I want a bison tag this year, or be out that money at the moment.

I suspect when NR next year notice the better odds, more will apply next year, though still less than originally when all you had to front was the $20 or whatever...

I wonder if residents were forced to front the NR tag fee and pay that to hunt bison what the % of NR vs Res would end up being?

Honestly I can't believe how cheap some resident hunters are, especially when talking about once in a lifetime type tags...

I love hearing residents complain about the % of NR tags issued and it's like oh what did you pay for your elk tag? I'd probably sign up for NR only getting 10% of the tags if we all pay the same tag fees... if that happened, probably 75% of the tags would go to NR since no res would pay such a fee.

I guess its the game we have and you have to play it. Just 2 sides to every coin I suppose.

I am guessing at that cost that you will lose some hunters to high fence operations. You can hunt bison on many high fence operations for $2000 TO $3000. It's not for me, but when the cost becomes the same amount you know some will take the easy way to the same goal.

I just dug into the WY Bison scenario deeper and it appears like Umpqua Hunter is correct. The lists have been in fact separate all along, R vs. NR as the set aside was still 80/20. So that won't change much there, but the price increase upfront should make a massive difference in odds, for both R and NR. When the upfront cost goes from $20 to $400 or even $2,500 it will drop. No one really knows by how much for sure, but I think the odds could go up by at least double, and possibly even by a factor of ten for NR hunters. Time will tell I guess. Good luck for all of you who do fork out the big cash for a Buff. -G